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michaeld
Sport climber
Sacramento
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Hiking, Camping, soccer, baseball, track and field.
Then I turned 12, was the boss of me. Skateboard, biked, weed and alcohol.
Then I turned 16 and started playing video games 20 hours a day for 5 years until I found rock climbing.
I was outdoors for 95% of the time in those video games if that counts.
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Great thread idea!
Here's my favorite images so far:
El Jefe, this one belongs blown up and framed in your home!
Pretty much says it all.
East Side Underground:
Norwegian:
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Outdoor upbringing?
No, not in the conventional sense.
My old man toted a B.A.R. and a heavy pack up and down snow-covered hills during the Korean War. He swore he would never hike again. Claims he's a sociopath, says he was never happier than when he was killing gooks! What a bunch of BS! I kind of get what he means tho …
I do have one very crisp memory outdoor with pops: I was four years old and he took me on a short day hike in the brush at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains above Arcadia California … Showed me how to kick the sides of my feet into the off-camber dirt trail where it sloped down and away into the ravine. Slow and deliberate movement, self-reliance, route finding, balance, technique: it's all in there in that one experience!
He took me to the sports car races a lot and left me to my own devices: so I was outside at Riverside Internationa l Raceway, pedaling around on my Schwinn stingray out in the dirt under the hot sun, watching big bore sports cars battle it out … and not very far from Mt. Rubidoux in fact. That was kind of an outdoor experience on steroids.
But as kids we were outside all the time, what with it being a 60s and all. My boyhood pal and I grew up more or less as brothers at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. At 9 years of age we were doing long day hikes without supervision. By 13 we were teaching ourselves how to rock climb.
Hard to say if it's in our family blood to be ... outside.
If there's any link, it'd be traceable only as epigenetic.
Yosemite Valley, 1931, taken by my father's adoptive parents:
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Mar 14, 2015 - 09:01pm PT
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hey there say, ... this was fun...
just a bump so if any newer folks had some nice shares, to add...
or, anymore stuff from those that read, but had not added yet...
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
extraordinaire
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Mar 15, 2015 - 12:20am PT
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That Karen photo is Convict Creek campground.
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WyoRockMan
climber
Flank of the Big Horns
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Mar 15, 2015 - 01:11am PT
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My folks divorced when I was 5.
My Mom took us on all kinds of wild adventures after that. Got me hooked on geology too.
Shootin' guns:
And stuffing kids into OWs:
Thanks Mom!
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MisterE
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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Mar 15, 2015 - 07:43am PT
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We moved constantly with my real father, Mike. Colorado for a while, then back to Washington, then back to Colorado. Living off the grid a lot. Trips to Yosemite and Tuolomne during the summer months.
When my mom left my real father, we went back to Washington and lived with my Grandparents in Seattle for a while. My mom took fire-watch look-out jobs in the North Cascades every summer, and we would spend months of the year living in a tower perched on some mountain-top. I remember racing up and down hundreds of rickety steps on a regular basis. She read a lot, so I was always out exploring by myself.
We still moved around a lot, from Bellingham, to Anacortes to Seattle - never staying anywhere for more than a year or so until I was about 15 and my mom and step-father bought a fish-processing business in Anacortes. My step-father was an avid skier - I took to it like a fish to water. Off-season trips to Mount Baker and other Washington ski areas, Whistler, Banff, Colorado and Utah resorts were made in an old converter school bus. Summers were spent cruising around the San Juan Islands buying fish to take back to the plant for processing. When the industry dumped in the mid-80's, my folks leased the boats to Alaska processors, and off I went with the boats to Alaska to be a deck-hand. They were probably psyched to have summers alone - I know I was!
Mom tried to keep me away from climbing because of the perception of the "bad element" of climbing, but it didn't take.
%^) Erik
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SC seagoat
Trad climber
Santa Cruz, or In What Time Zone Am I?
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Mar 15, 2015 - 08:09am PT
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Grew up on the shores of Lake Erie. Was raised primarily by my dad as my Mom died when I was 5. Had two older brothers so I was introduced early to hunting and fishing.
Summers were lake and mountain activities, fishing, hiking, camping. Winters were skiing and larger game hunting. Bagged my first deer at 16 when I got a 30.06 for my birthday. That was the first and last one. I did stay in Rifle Club in high school and loved it but had no large game hunting interest anymore. I did contine to hunt turkeys as I loved eating wild turkey and they basically flocked into our backyard.
My Dad's lifelong lesson to me, which I didn't realize at the time was "if you want to go fish with the boys and me, you're going to have to learn to bait your own hook." I learned to love watering the lawn at night to get all the night crawlers to come out so we could go fish at dawn. Although little fingers trying to bait the hook with squishy worms was challenging.
Susan
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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Mar 15, 2015 - 08:34am PT
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outside or inside,
my dad raised me
slingin bullets,
playin cards,
and dodging taxes.
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Norwegian
Trad climber
dancin on the tip of god's middle finger
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Mar 15, 2015 - 08:42am PT
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jefe
in looking thru you slides
i see why we got the steely eyes.[Click to View YouTube Video]
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10b4me
Social climber
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Mar 15, 2015 - 08:48am PT
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My exposure to the outdoors really didn't begin until I was fifteen. Prior to that it was road trips. I made to both Yosemite, and Yellowstone before I was five. I got into hiking as a senior in high school, and got my dad into it, too. Then my dad and started fishing all over the west, with a week long trip to the east side every fall.
My dad started having health problems, and I hiked more by myself. Met some folks who introduced me to climbing, and the rest is history.
Jefe, been to Acoma, Canyon de Chelly, and Chaco Canyon. I want to go back to Chaco. It's a really net place.
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Psilocyborg
climber
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Mar 15, 2015 - 09:09am PT
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My dad grew up very poor hunting for food in rural Utah. By the time I came along he was an electrical engineer in Los Angeles, but I think the outdoors was in my blood.
My parents took us on a couple camping trips here and there, and that was the extent of it, but they made sure I was in scouts. I was booted out of scouts for being a trouble maker, but I was hooked.
Once I got my drivers license, I was gone.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Mar 15, 2015 - 09:51am PT
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Grew up in NYC. We never even went on a picnic. Central park was my idea of back country. Hunting to my father meant looking for mismatched socks. But for some reason I always loved being outdoors and continually begged my parents to move to "the country," whatever that was supposed to mean. I somehow managed to overlook the fact that we didn't own a car and neither of my parents drove.
Eventually, I had to take matters into my own hands.
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Kalimon
Social climber
Ridgway, CO
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Mar 15, 2015 - 10:15am PT
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Hey now Jefe! Incredible photos! You are extremely fortunate to have such trasures. I find it interesting that we both share the "missing" father syndrome . . . at least your Dad gave it some effort initially . . . Mine not at all.
As for an "outdoor" upbringing . . . I mostly had to discover nature on my own.
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mongrel
Trad climber
Truckee, CA
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Mar 15, 2015 - 10:50am PT
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It is understandable that any parent would have wanted me and my two older brothers the hell out of the house at all times that this was possible. So from age 3 or 4, I would do my best to keep up as we wandered for hours and hours through the chaparral, sometimes on fire roads or trails but much of the time just crawling under the bushes with the ticks and biting ants and poison oak and other interesting plants. Though my parents had grown up in the city, for some mad reason they decided to take us all camping in Yosemite in around 1958. Then, as soon as we were old enough to go, we were sent off on one or two week camping trips with the YMCA, 25 kids and duffel bags piled into the back of a slat-sided truck like livestock. How there were never any fatalities or lost-and-never-seen-again kids is beyond me.
Still tromping around in all kinds of outdoor habitats, only now I get paid to do it!
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Ezra Ellis
Trad climber
North wet, and Da souf
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Mar 15, 2015 - 06:39pm PT
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I saw 25 national parks before age 5,
I did a twelve mile hike, mostly with out water, at age 5 in the Enchantment wilderness; it snowed on us that night.
My parents loved the remote backcountry of the pacific Northwest , and the desert southwest.
By age 5 I would be gone for twelve hours at a stretch playing in the woods unsupervised. Some how I never was hit by a car on my bike, or lost, or injured.
Kids these days have such short leashes, and extreme Societal expectations of parental control and hand holding.
I fear the next generation will have no concept of risk analysis and decision making capacity!!!!!
This is a great thread Jefe!
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kpinwalla2
Social climber
WA
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Mar 15, 2015 - 08:40pm PT
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Absolutely not. My father used to say "my idea of camping out is a Holiday Inn". Thanks goodness for the boy scouts.
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Mark Force
Trad climber
Cave Creek, AZ
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Mar 15, 2015 - 09:45pm PT
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My mother used to say her idea of camping was when the room service was late!
Spent summers with my grandfolks who had a cabin that had a hand pump for water and kerosene lamps for light. Rode horses and fished and had to cut and split wood for the winter. Loved that.
Dad would take me backpacking once in a while. Good times.
At 15, went to a working ranch school (Orme School) and did some riding (loved roundups and the low key local rodeos). That was fun.
The best was the survival program at Orme that was styled after the SAS survival program. We got to do all kinds of crazy stuff that schools couldn't get away with now.
It was way cool to experience at 17 a four day solo with a knife, flint, and canteen and have to cover terrain. Hint: Don't eat caterpillars!
This is a great thread. It's really fun to see how folks parents have shared the outdoors with them. We did that with our kids and it really paid off for them and for our relationship with them. We always said we were taking them to church when we took them into the outdoors and we would give thanks and blessings to everything around us as a family.
Now my wife and I make sure the grandkids get to connect to the earth.
'Cause we're tree hugging dirt worshippers!
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john hansen
climber
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Mar 15, 2015 - 10:56pm PT
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One time me and my little brother went down to the creek and set up a snare, with a bent over sapling and a few feet of line. We were like nine and ten.
This was like 1969..
The next day our cousin was visiting and we ventured back out to check the trap.
When we got close we saw something jumping up and down, we had actually caught something!
It was a fox.
So now what to do..
I took my machete, ( don't all ten year olds have a machete?)
And instead of killing the fox I cut down the little tree that I had used for the snare. And slowly crawled out towards the end of the tree , and cut the string holding the fox.
He was gone in an instant, I hoped he got the string off his neck before it got snagged on something else.
I always felt guilty for catching that guy.
My older brother and me used to go out when it was stormy and raining with one match, a small tarp and a good knife. Just for fun.
He was really good at carving a Fuzz stick. Tinder is the key.
I don't remember a single time we did not get a fire going.
We used to do a lot of hiking with out a water bottle,
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